Are we amusing ourselves to death?

Persuasion, Propaganda and Entertainment

Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death

“…in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”

From the Foreword

From the Foreword to Neil Postman’s

Amusing Ourselves to Death

“Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

“In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

“This book [Amusing Ourselves to Death] is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

Television reality has become our reality

• “Television has become… the background radiation of the social and intellectual universe, … so familiar and so thoroughly integrated with American culture that we no longer hear its faint hissing in the background or see the flickering grey light.”

• “There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through television seems natural, not bizarre.”

--From Chapter 5

Has TV turned our world into a Brave New World?

“…We have so thoroughly accepted [television’s] definitions of truth, knowledge and reality that irrelevance seems to us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane.

“Television… is transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business. It is entirely possible, of course, that in the end we shall find that delightful, and decide we like it just fine. This is exactly what Aldous Huxley feared was coming, fifty years ago.”

from Chapter 5

How does TV affect you?

“People love technologies that undo their capacity to think”

Image and caption from www.twoandahalfd.com

The Medium is the Message

It is impossible to separate media from their power structure.

Super powerful multinational companies produce the majority of media.

Media messages tend to reflect the values and ideology of their producers and distributors.

WORLD BRIDGER MEDIAAntonio R. López

Products Have Magical Powers That Influence Human Emotions

• Our system of mass media is driven by the commercial imperative to sell products.

• “Brands" and products become the most highly prized parts of media messages.

• They have the power to grant love, happiness and esteem.

• Their lack is nearly always portrayed as a cause of misery.

• Human relations are almost always secondary products (Lopez).

Lopez’s Media Deconstruction Key

To deconstruct a media sample, [such as a television show, magazine or tv ad} answer the following questions in order:

1. What is the context? What environment does the media example come from? What kind of magazine or what channel did the sample appear in?

2. Who paid for the media? They're the real "storyteller." Companies don't pay millions of dollars for an ad with out a reason. What is it?

3. Who is being targeted? Who is the story being told to? Who are the consumers of the message? Who are the readers of the media?

Subtext

4. Why is the storyteller presenting this message? What messages and values are being expressed?

5. What kind of lifestyle is presented? Is it glamorized? How?

4. What does the story say, and what does it mean? What is the text of the message? Is there a subtext?

The medium constructs a story, whether or not you are consciously aware

7. How is the story constructed? What techniques is the storyteller using?

8. What technological tools or attention hooks are used?

9. What is not being told in the story? Is there missing information or counter-messages the advertiser doesn't want you to think about?

10. Is the story accurate, fair, truthful and complete? In what ways is this a healthy and/or unhealthy example of media?

Copyright 2004 Antonio Lopezwww.world-bridger.com

Advertising Analysis

Media employ specific techniques to construct believable stories. They hook our attention through psychological devices and technical effects.

Technical effects

• Camera angles enhance perspective, such as low angles that give the subject power.

• Close-ups provide emphasis.• Sound effects animate products, giving them emotion.• Mise-en-scene (set and setting inside camera frame)

creates cultural and ideological context. Is the set a concert, a mansion, a shopping mall?

• Accessories enhance the product. What's being associated with the product, such as clothes, props, models?

• Lighting is used to draw your eye to certain details.

You, too, can be happy, attractive, and exhilarated if you buy our product

Happy and attractive people are made-up and constructed to enhance the message.

• Music, popular songs and jingles create mnemonic devices to program or trigger your memory.

• Special effects bring inanimate things to life and make them exciting. This is especially true with children-targeted ads.

• Editing is used to pace and generate excitement. Notice how military and video game ads have very fast cuts, usually a scene change every second.

Common Attention-Getting Hooks

• Emotional Transfer is the process of generating emotions in order to transfer them to a product. For example, a Coke ad shows happy,beautiful people but tells us nothing about the product. The point is tomake you feel good and to transfer that feeling to the brand or product This is the number one and most important process of media manipulation.

• Sex sells, without exception.

Who’s afraid of a few flakes?

• Fear messages are directed at our insecurities, such as "no one will like you if you have dandruff," or "bald people are losers." This is a very common technique and extra attention is required to resist these messages.

C’mon. All your friends are doing it.

Fitting In is a very common technique that tries to influence us by stating that if everyone else is buying the product, so should you.

This is often seen in beer commercials, which promotes a "big lie" that everyone drinks (alcoholics are the main consumers of alcohol).

Not so subtle techniques …if you’re paying attention

Symbols

Humor

Hype

“Get down at America's favorite waterpark!”

It’s the Best!

Vague Promises like "might," "maybe," and "could" are red herrings that divert our attention. "Super Glue may heal cuts better than band-aids,“ sounds absurd, but you will often hear claims as preposterous as this and it would still be true (because it can't be disproved).

“Hooked on Phonics worked for me!”

Testimonials are statements by people explaining why certain products are great. Famous or plain folk, or actors can do them. This is more powerful when someone we really like or respect endorses a product(such as Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan).

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

“Beautiful” people are usually used to glamorize merchandise, especially unhealthy products like alcohol, tobacco and junk food. Models and actors generally have rare body types, and don't represent average people, but idealized notions of beauty that are constantly changing

Famous People make products appealing and attractive through association.

Ordinary People are people that might be like you or me. This is common in ads that stress community or family, like Wal-Mart.

It’s Easy!

• Simple solutions are often used to convince us that a product will solve our problems, such as "bald spot hair spray will get you a date," or "doorknob disinfectant wipes keep us healthy." Larger ideological messages are common as well, such as "cars enable us to conquer nature."

What story does this ad create?

He said, she said

Macho is generally used to appeal to males, but not exclusively. It demonstrates masculinity and male stereotypes; these are common in military and tobacco ads.

Femininity is another gender stereotype used in a variety of ads, from teen make-up commercials to alcohol ads.

You can say that again!

Repetition is used to reiterate a sales pitch over and over again

I bet you know who this is and what he is selling…and you didn’t

need any hypnopaedia!

Logical Fallacies

A fallacy is a statement that makes an argument using faulty logic.

• A fallacy may not be false, but often cannot be proven true or false. It is generally misleading

• Sometimes advertisers, propagandists, and everyday people intentionally deceive with fallacies.

That doesn’t follow!

Non sequitur. This term, literally translated, means "it does not follow." A non sequitur is an illogical statement, one which seems to draw a conclusion not supported by the premises.

My essay will get a good grade because I put a lot of effort into it.

Jump on the Bandwagon!

Bandwagon argument (argumentum ad populum) A bandwagon argument appeals to the beliefs or prejudices of the crowd. Such arguments often depend on popular generalizations and associations and are widely used in advertising and political campaigns.

Everyone believes Martin's ideas are stupid; Martin must be wrong.

Drink Pepsi; it’s the choice of a new generation.

Either…or

• False dichotomy ("Either...or" fallacy) This is the fallacious presentation of two possibilities as the only possibilities. In many cases there are only two possibilities: everyone must either consume nourishment or die; a battery terminal is either negative or positive. Often, however, there are other possibilities, as there are, barring bizarre circumstances, in these cases:

Either the Government will silence dissenting voices or it will face anarchy

I must pass Geometry, or my life will be ruined

Don’t be too hasty

• Hasty generalization Generalizations may well be right most of the time, but they are also wrong some of the time. Moreover, they are usually not supported by specific information but by an appeal to common sense or common experience. In short, generalizations present as general and absolute something which is limited and contingent. Often, arguments are based on anecdotal evidence on specific, undocumented case histories.

Mary's husband beats her; men always oppress women.

My Italian brother-in-law makes superb pasta; all Italian men are great cooks

Would you like some red herring with that?

Red herring A red herring is one which has been salted, dried, and smoked; it has a powerful and distinctive odour. As Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable points out, a red herring "drawn across a fox's path destroys the scent and sets the dogs at fault." In argument, a red herring describes a statement introducing an unrelated point instead of addressing the question under debate.

Loading students with hours of homework is pointless when the world is about to be destroyed by the greenhouse effect

Everything that glitters isn’t gold

Glittering Generalities (Argument by Slogan)

This is an important-sounding but unspecific claim.  It cannot be proved true or false because it really says little or nothing. 

"The Real Thing." 

"Simply the best,"

"the Right Stuff,"

"Nutrition That Works."

Glad and bad words

Loaded WordsThis is also called the glad and bad words fallacy. It involves the use of emotive words to influence the reader. This technique is frequently used in advertisements to persuade us to buy things. Bad words are used to make us buy products to rid ourselves of things that we have been persuaded are undesirable. Glad words are used to make us buy products to obtain what we have been persuaded is desirable.

"Why suffer the embarrassment of morning mouth? Use ZYX toothpaste every evening and wake up to a fresh, exciting mouth."

If you do that, the world will end!

Slippery SlopeThe assumption that one event can  cause of an undesirable chain reaction of events.  The slippery slope fallacy is a case of if-then. 

"If you don't get to bed early, then you'll be too tired to do well on the GRE tomorrow.  If that happens, then you won't get accepted into a decent graduate school, and you'll end up a washed-out alcoholic living in a trash-bin." 

There is also an old saying about a camel's nose that is another example of slippery slope: "If you allow a camel to poke his nose into the tent, soon the whole camel will follow."*

Something is making me feel good about Cottonelle, but I don’t know what it is.

Transfer

This fallacy appeals to people's respect or reverence of symbols, such as a politician standing in front of an American flag.  There is also a good deal of transfer value in children, pets, or good-looking models.